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Beulah, Colorado
It started out as Mace's hole. Juan Mace, the Mexican outlaw, lived there for many years. This was his hideout. The valley provided natural barriers which allowed Juan Mace to escape before anyone could enter the valley. The valley was difficult to enter without being seen. When intruders were spotted, Juan Mace would round up his "bootie" (usually livestock stolen from wagon trains) and go to the second Mace's hole. The entrance to this second valley was very narrow and only one person at a time could enter. The second valley was heavily guarded and too dangerous to enter. Juan Mace also spread rumors of having a large band of bandits which also keep people out. A letter he wrote to help spread the rumor, written 14 April, 1859:
Tom,
Get three hundred of the boys in fighting order, and have them ready to come and well mounted by the 20th, when we can make a big haul. I hear there is a good many wagon trains, and lots of chuck Coming over the plains. How are the boys? Stay in camp and be handy.
Juan Mace
This letter was left intentionally so the wagon train would find it. This allowed Juan Mace to obtain large portions of the wagon train's herd with no one to chase after them for fear of the large group of bandits waiting in the valley.
Mace's undoing was when they started attacking their neighbors. A trap was laid and most of the band was caught. Eight of the bandits were hung on the spot, four others got away. The hideout was burned to the ground and that was the last of Juan Mace. It is not sure if he was hung with the eight or if he got away. Some even speculate that he was one of the four who was shot and later died.
It wasn't long after that when the first settler's moved in. The Sease family was the second family in the valley. This included John Jacob Sease, he was the head of the family since his father died in the 1840's. With him were his mother, Anna M. Harrison Sease, his sister, Martha "Amanda" Sease, his son (from a previous marriage) John Joseph and his niece, Mary Sease. John Jacob Sease's brother (Samuel S. Sease) drove cattle. The Sease's arrived in 1863.
James "Perry" Murray farmed the land next to the Sease's. "Perry was the third settler into the valley. He married "Amanda" and later moved his family to Mace's hole from Fountain City (Pueblo) in 1870.
By the mid 1870's Mace's Hole became an "Established Southern Colorado Entity". A Post office was established in 1873 and several stores and other small businesses lined the main street of the village.
The first log school house was built of the Sease land in 1871. This small one room school house served a generation of students. Along with building a school, the first church was built. The members gathered at Columbus (Perry's brother) and Adelia's ome until the church was completed. Committees were formed in 1879 for the building of the church. the construction began in 1883 and was finished 4 July 1884. "Perry" Murray and John Jacob Sease (brother in law) were on the committee overseeing the construction of the church.
In 1876 Colorado was admitted into the union of states. The residents felt that their community deserved a name that was more representative of their home than Mace's Hole. The name "Beulah" was give to the village to "symbolize" the pioneer's expectation for the settlement. The name became official 25 Oct. 1876.
Paraphrased from the book " Brulah, From the Way it Was to the Way it is Now"